2015, Dassi, Franco, Si, Hang, Perotto, Simona, Streckenbach, Timo

In this paper we provide a novel anisotropic mesh adaptation technique for adaptive finite element analysis. It is based on the concept of higher dimensional embedding, which was exploited in [1], [2], [3], [4] to obtain an anisotropic curvature adapted mesh that fits a complex surface in R3. In the context of adaptive finite element simulation, the solution (which is an unknown function f : Ω ⊂ d → ) is sought by iteratively modifying a finite element mesh according to a mesh sizing field described via a (discrete) metric tensor field that is typically obtained through an error estimator. We proposed to use a higher dimensional embedding, Φf (x):= (x1, …, xd, s f (x1, …, xd), s ▿ f (x1, …, xd))t, instead of the mesh sizing field for the mesh adaption. This embedding contains both informations of the function f itself and its gradient. An isotropic mesh in this embedded space will correspond to an anisotropic mesh in the actual space, where the mesh elements are stretched and aligned according to the features of the function f. To better capture the anisotropy and gradation of the mesh, it is necessary to balance the contribution of the components in this embedding. We have properly adjusted Φf (x) for adaptive finite element analysis. To better understand and validate the proposed mesh adaptation strategy, we first provide a series of experimental tests for piecewise linear interpolation of known functions. We then applied this approach in an adaptive finite element solution of partial differential equations. Both tests are performed on two-dimensional domains in which adaptive triangular meshes are generated. We compared these results with the ones obtained by the software BAMG – a metric-based adaptive mesh generator. The errors measured in the L2 norm are comparable. Moreover, our meshes captured the anisotropy more accurately than the meshes of BAMG.

2016, Si, Hang, Goerigk, Nadja

The non-convex polyhedron constructed by Chazelle, known as the Chazelle polyhedron [4], establishes a quadratic lower bound on the minimum number of convex pieces for the 3d polyhedron partitioning problem. In this paper, we study the problem of tetrahedralising the Chazelle polyhedron without modifying its exterior boundary. It is motivated by a crucial step in tetrahedral mesh generation in which a set of arbitrary constraints (edges or faces) need to be entirely preserved. The goal of this study is to gain more knowledge about the family of 3d indecomposable polyhedra which needs additional points, so-called Steiner points, to be tetrahedralised. The requirement of only using interior Steiner points for the Chazelle polyhedron is extremely challenging. We first “cut off” the volume of the Chazelle polyhedron by removing the regions that are tetrahedralisable. This leads to a 3d non-convex polyhedron whose vertices are all in the two slightly shifted saddle surfaces which are used to construct the Chazelle polyhedron. We call it the reduced Chazelle polyhedron. It is an indecomposable polyhedron. We then give a set of (N + 1)2 interior Steiner points that ensures the existence of a tetrahedralisation of the reduced Chazelle polyhedron with 4(N + 1) vertices. The proof is done by transforming a 3d tetrahedralisation problem into a 2d edge flip problem. In particular, we design an edge splitting and flipping algorithm and prove that it gives to a tetrahedralisation of the reduced Chazelle polyhedron.

2015, Huang, Weizhang, Kamenski, Lennard, Si, Hang

We study a mesh smoothing algorithm based on the moving mesh PDE (MMPDE) method. For the MMPDE itself, we employ a simple and efficient direct geometric discretization of the underlying meshing functional on simplicial meshes. The nodal mesh velocities can be expressed in a simple, analytical matrix form, which makes the implementation of the method relatively easy and simple. Numerical examples are provided.

2014, Shewchuk, Jonathan Richard, Si, Hang

Algorithms for generating Delaunay tetrahedral meshes have difficulty with domains whose boundary polygons meet at small angles. The requirement that all tetrahedra be Delaunay often forces mesh generators to overrefine near small domain angles

2016, Dassi, Franco, Kamenski, Lennard, Si, Hang

We combine the new moving mesh smoothing, based on the integration of an ordinary differential equation coming from a given functional, with the new lazy flip technique, a reversible edge removal algorithm for local mesh quality improvement. These strategies already provide good mesh improvement on themselves, but their combination achieves astonishing results not reported so far. Provided numerical comparison with some publicly available mesh improving software show that we can obtain final tetrahedral meshes with dihedral angles between 40° and 123°.

2002, Si, Hang

This technical report describes the main features and the using of TetGen, a 3D Delaunay tetrahedral mesh generator. Based on the most recent developments in mesh generation algorithms, this program has been specifically designed to fulfill the task of automatically generating high quality tetrahedral meshes, which are suitable for scientific computing using numerical methods such as finite element and finite volume methods. In this document, the user will learn how to create 3D tetrahedral meshes using TetGen's input files and command line switches. Various examples were given for better understanding. This document describes the features of the version 1.2.

2017, Dassi, Franco, Kamenski, Lennard, Farrell, Patricio, Si, Hang

Given a tetrahedral mesh and objective functionals measuring the mesh quality which take into account the shape, size, and orientation of the mesh elements, our aim is to improve the mesh quality as much as possible. In this paper, we combine the moving mesh smoothing, based on the integration of an ordinary differential equation coming from a given functional, with the lazy flip technique, a reversible edge removal algorithm to modify the mesh connectivity. Moreover, we utilize radial basis function (RBF) surface reconstruction to improve tetrahedral meshes with curved boundary surfaces. Numerical tests show that the combination of these techniques into a mesh improvement framework achieves results which are comparable and even better than the previously reported ones.

2015, Goerigk, Nadja, Si, Hang

The existence of indecomposable polyhedra, that is, the interior of every such polyhedron cannot be decomposed into a set of tetrahedra whose vertices are all of the given polyhedron, is well-known. However, the geometry and combinatorial structure of such polyhedra are much less studied. In this article, we investigate the structure of some well-known examples, the so-called Schönhardt polyhedron [10] and the Bagemihl's generalization of it [1], which will be called Bagemihl's polyhedra. We provide a construction of an additional point, so-called Steiner point, which can be used to decompose the Schönhardt and the Bagemihl's polyhedra. We then provide a construction of a larger class of three-dimensional indecomposable polyhedra which often appear in grid generation problems. We show that such polyhedra have the same combinatorial structure as the Schönhardt's and Bagemihl's polyhedra, but they may need more than one Steiner point to be decomposed. Given such a polyhedron with n ≥ 6 vertices, we show that it can be decomposed by adding at most interior Steiner points. We also show that this number is optimal in theworst case.

2013, Si, Hang

TetGen is a software for tetrahedral mesh generation. Its goal is to generate good quality tetrahedral meshes suitable for numerical methods and scientific computing. It can be used as either a standalone program or a library component integrated in other software. The purpose of this document is to give a brief explanation of the kind of tetrahedralizations and meshing problems handled by TetGen and to give a fairly detailed documentation about the usage of the program. Readers will learn how to create tetrahedral meshes using input files from the command line. Furthermore, the programming interface for calling TetGen from other programs is explained.

2015, Si, Hang, Goerigk, Nadja

The polyhedron constructed by Chazelle, known as Chazelle polyhedron [4], is an important example in many partitioning problems. In this paper, we study the problem of tetrahedralising a Chazelle polyhedron without modifying its exterior boundary. It is motivated by a crucial step in 3d finite element mesh generation in which a set of arbitrary boundary constraints (edges or faces) need to be entirely preserved. We first reduce the volume of a Chazelle polyhedron by removing the regions that are tetrahedralisable. This leads to a 3d polyhedron which may not be tetrahedralisable unless extra points, so-called Steiner points, are added. We call it a reduced Chazelle polyhedron. We define a set of interior Steiner points that ensures the existence of a tetrahedralisation of the reduced Chazelle polyhedron. Our proof uses a natural correspondence that any sequence of edge flips converting one triangulation of a convex polygon into another gives a tetrahedralization of a 3d polyhedron which have the two triangulations as its boundary. Finally, we exhibit a larger family of reduced Chazelle polyhedra which includes the same combinatorial structure of the Schönhardt polyhedron. Our placement of interior Steiner points also applies to tetrahedralise polyhedra in this family.